The upside of Ben Sollee's latest homecoming concert will be that he won't have to pedal very far to get to the gig. Among the many distinctions fortifying the career of the pop songsmith, cellist, activist and Lexington native has been a very green-minded means of tour transportation.

For several of his concert treks, Sollee has sustained himself by riding from show to show on a bicycle. As such, his performance Saturday at Transylvania won't call for pedal power, should Sollee choose that mode of travel again.

Never miss a local story.

Sign up today for a free 30 day free trial of unlimited digital access.

The downside to all this? Well, just look outside. Unless some kind of Bermuda high chooses to displace the ongoing series of seasonal storms in time for Valentine's Day weekend, Sollee won't exactly have the most optimal cycling weather at his disposal.

Once he gets to Transy, though, expect another generous serving of original folk-informed pop. Sollee has long been familiar to Lexington and Louisville audiences for a series of strong indie albums — from his debut, Learning to Bend, through the recent Half Made Man — as well as a series of recording and performance collaborations with the likes of Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn (in the Sparrow Quartet), fellow Kentuckian Daniel Martin Moore and top Louisville rock export My Morning Jacket.

Before all of that, of course, Sollee played to local audiences weekly at the Kentucky Theatre as part of the house band for the WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour. He returned to the Kentucky last fall for another college audience event, a show presented by the University of Kentucky.

Saturday's Transy concert will likely provide a live sampling of a new studio recording called The Hollow Sessions. This is essentially Sollee's covers album, a set of tunes that have inspired much of the cellist's own songwriting. Recorded last summer near Prospect, the record also reveals just how far Sollee's spectrum of influences reaches.

The record boasts lean, spirited arrangements of songs by Tom Waits (Chocolate Jesus), Paul Simon (The Obvious Child), The Zombies (This Will Be Our Year), Gillian Welch (Everything Is Free), Fiona Apple (Extraordinary Machine) and other works. Capping it all is a none-too-subtle summation of Sollee's roots: his reading of Bill Monroe's signature heartbreak anthem Blue Moon of Kentucky.

The Transylvania student band The Dreamin' Rovers will kick off the performance. Doors open at Haggin Auditorium at 8 p.m. Saturday.

Sugar and mud

Monday's taping of the WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour at the Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center, 300 East Third Street, will feature a new band that boasts a few familiar names.

On the bill will be the Americana troupe Willie Sugarcapps, a quintet that luxuriates in roots-driven blues, folk and country. Among its ranks are Will Kimbrough (who has played Lexington over the years behind Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell and others along with a long line of local club shows as a headliner) and Anthony Crawford (an artist with a mile-long list of credits topped by frequent stints with Neil Young). Grayson Capps, Corky Hughes and Savana Lee complete the lineup of players that began gigging together during weekly jam sessions at the outdoor Sugarhill, Ala., music haunt known as the Frog Pond. The venue's name seems to have figured into the swampy grooves that propel the self-titled debut recording Willie Sugarcapps released last summer.

Balancing out the band's bayou-flavored sound at WoodSongs will be Baskery, a trio composed of three Swedish folk-rock sisters (Greta, Stella and Sunniva Bondesson). Baskery is touring the United States to promote Little Wild Life, its latest album of rustic, self-described "mud country" music. (6:45 p.m. $10. Call (859) 252-8888 for reservations. Woodsongs.com.)